anyone with an iguana?

[MissyMe83]

Just curious if anyone has any experience with them.... can you post your iguana habitat/enclosure? How are they as mature adults? Are they aggressive with other animals, specifically birds. How much hands on time do they require?

Just peaked my interest and curiosity. ...

 

[Featheredsamurai]

We used to have a iguana, they are not a easy pet to take care of. Iguana's need daily fresh veggies, iguana pellets(these should be a small part of the diet though, a small hand full thrown over fresh foods), their poo smells disgusting(but they tend to only poo once a day), males grow to be massive.

They have a ton of character though and if you can give them the proper care they need they are wonderful.

Our Iguana started off in a 75g terrarium(she was a rescue so already large when we got her) and later upgraded to a 5' tall, 3' wide, 3' deep cat cage with two platforms, lots of large reptile driftwood secured with zip ties, basking rock, and UV light and heat lamp. Every day after she pooped we would open the doors and let her walk around for a few hours

 

[MissyMe83]

Interesting... there aren't really any good iguana forums that I have come across. Most informative info/education was a YouTube vid posted by someone at a pet store. Seems like they need a 6ft long enclosure at minimum when adults, special lighting, basking area, ect. Im really curious to see how someone would go about building that type of enclosure and what materials would be used.

How were you able to keep the correct humidity with that open cage? I keep picturing an aquarium or plexiglass type of housing...

 

[MarciaLove]

they are aggressive with pretty much everything!!! I had two now I only have one and he will try to kill anything but me. they HAVE to be socialized every day or will get agressive towards you too though i wouldnt say they are hard to take care of yea their poo smells but they dont go to often and you can scoop it up with a litterbox scooper every day no biggie. They need daily fresh varied veggies and some need extra calcium powder depending on if they get sunlight. They need a special reptile Vitamin light, basking light, and heat lamp that just emits heat not light for nighttime. My iguana doesnt get outside every day but I take him outside maybe three times a week and ill attach a picture of his cage me and my dad built for him I do have higher branches in now I dont have pics of them though. As for the cage remember iguanas get anywhere from 5-6 feet long and they are climbers so they need lots of high branches and vines some real some fake make sure the real ones are safe to eat though cause occasionally they will nibble on them. They also need water to swim in as they frequently swim in this one I have a waterfall thing with pool at bottom cause my iguana now is small my mom had a different adult large iguana though with a pond built into his cage so he could swim in that.

my iguanas cage before the extra high branches

my iguana on his waterfall

my iguana sunning

 

[MarciaLove]

Reptile Forums theres a good reptile forum. Keeping humidity is easy in an open cage mist three times a day in closed once a day. Me and dad made this cage with glass he got free from work and wood framing held together with screws it wasnt too hard. It goes up to the ceiling but its raised off the ground and has storage shelves underneath it. Also its got one wall just wood cause we just have vines all on that wall and one wall against the window for extra sun!

 

[MissyMe83]

Oh wow that's awesome! It's kinda hard to tell but I assume it's closed? What materials did you use and how big is it?

 

[MarciaLove]

its closed in I just opened the door for a better pic I used glass and lumber from homedepot held together with screws Its 5' 5" high, 5' 5" tall, 3' 3" wide.

 

[riaria]

I've had two iguanas, long ago, and they were both very different from each other. One was a female who I got fairly young, for free, after the pet shop were unable to sell her as she was lost her tail and wasn't "as pretty" as the others. She was the sweetest thing, very very gentle, would go along with everything. She loved crawling under the covers of my bed, or under a blanket, and press up against me for body heat.

The other was a rescued adult male, who hadn't come from the best of homes. He was very aggressive towards everyone but me. He liked his space, liked to do his own thing, but was very pleasant to live with (I lived alone at the time).

The female lived in a large terrarium, I can't remember the size. The male had never lived in an enclosed area, we think, and hated if we closed the door to the terrarium, so he basically roamed free in my flat (except for the kitchen, as he jumped everywhere to explore and it wasn't safe). I built him a corner unit with a shelf and a heat lamp where he spent a lot of his time. He also absolutely loved napping on a pillow on the window sill. He was very very receptive to my body language and voice, so I could stop him from attacking guests by telling him no, or by sitting between him and the guest. He kind of learnt toilet training, or at least learnt that I wanted him to pooh in a plastic cat litter tray. But he never really understood that I wanted him to do it ON the tray, so often he'd sit on the side of it and pooh down onto the floor. Still, better than on the bed! But you can also stimulate them to go if you give them a bath, and as long as you do it at least once a day, that'll probably work.

An angry adult green iguana isn't to be toyed with, their tail is sharp and they wield it as a whip. Their teeth aren't pleasant either, I've been told. But, they're fairly clever, and from my experience, receptive to body language even when it's a human.

 

[Mare Miller]

My oldest son brought one home, gosh, about 12 years ago, he was in high school. It was maybe a foot long then. This iguana grew and grew and when my son graduated and left for college, guess who got asked to take care of it?! By this time, he was over three feet long and not real friendly towards me, I'd never really handled him and had never really wanted to, the only time we interacted was if I needed to feed him. Sooo, here we are with this huge lizard.
I fed him and made sure his needs were taken care. He gets loose one day. Scared the #### out of me when I walked into my bedroom to see this dinosaur hanging from my window curtains! (curtains had always been his favorite hangout when my son was home). He wouldn't let me pick him up, he would try and whip me with his tail, so I had to wait till he was hungry enough to crawl back to his cage. Anyways, my son finally found him a good home.
They eat a lot and they love the most expensive types of veggies, they aren't low cost to keep. There is more to it than just feeding them, as others have mentioned, I guess, most importantly, you better be a reptile person!

 

[Yapallocelotl]

I used to have an iguana, he was really calm but maybe because we didn't have any other pets around , I had him living in a fairly large fish tank.